ibanezfandomcom-20200223-history
Forum:Source for Ibanez images
I've recently stumbled upon a Hoshino USA site which I've found to be a great source of very high quality product images: Hoshino USA Marketing/Advertising Materials. If you drill down on this site into "Product Images" >> "Ibanez Electric Guitars" you'll find images of nearly every model currently offered in the US. The images are all in "portrait" format (i.e. with the neck pointed upwards), rather than the "landscape" images (i.e. with the neck pointing right or left) that fit better with the overall layout of this site, but it's quite easy to simply rotate the images 90 degrees before uploading them to the wiki. Unfortunately, this cache of images is only of current models, so it won't help with documenting any discontinued models. \m/ DeeJayKTalk! 15:49, April 26, 2016 (UTC) :Great link, thanks! It will come very handy for future edits. Btw I've got quite a similar link, relating to the signature models: Ibanez Artist List. Simply the official site :) Not only can you see the model(s) the artist currently uses, but you also got the full line of his signature's models since his debuts (however if an artist is no longer endorsed by ibanez (e.g. Franck Gambale), then there is nothing). Hope it helps too. --KainTGC (talk) 17:16, April 26, 2016 (UTC) ::I've been all over the Ibanez site (at least I'd thought I had), but I've never really dived into the Artists section. Looks like a useful resource, but I'm not sure how up-to-date it is. Noticed that the Tosin Abasi page doesn't list his signature TAM100 model, although he is pictured holding it and it is mentioned in the text. \m/ DeeJayKTalk! 20:25, April 26, 2016 (UTC) :::I'm sorry, maybe the link I provided yesterday is not good (I tried to remove my "area" from the URL), maybe it is better to start simply from "ibanez.com" then it switches automatically to your local area, and then go the artists pages. For example I definitely see the TAM100 from where I am: :::* http://www.ibanez.com/products/eg_sig_series16.php?year=2016&area_id=3&cat_id=1&series_id=14 (please note the area_id=3 in the URL as I live in Europe). :::And it works very well with Steve Vai as well, with his incredible number of JEM/UV, current ones and very old/historic ones: :::* http://www.ibanez.com/products/eg_sig_series16.php?year=2016&area_id=3&cat_id=1&series_id=32. :::Do you see what I see or is the Ibanez site very different depending on the country we live in? --KainTGC (talk) 22:20, April 27, 2016 (UTC) ::::No, I see it now. I'm not sure where that Tosin Abasi page I linked to the other day came from. When I navigate as you describe, his page shows his TAM100 and TAM10 models. You're right, this could be very useful. ::::By the way, you probably already noticed, but the Ibanez site allows you to change your region. You just have to scroll to the bottom and click the "Change your region" link (it doesn't seem to appear on ALL pages, but it's always on the main page). That's another useful trick for getting info on models particular to a certain region. You can also look at the Ibanez Japan site at www.ibanez.co.jp — some stuff is in kanji, but there's enough English that you can navigate. Another trick I use is browsing old versions of the site archived at archive.org \m/ DeeJayKTalk! 20:35, April 29, 2016 (UTC) :::::Sorry for the late answer and yes, I used this "change region" trick to get to the japanese catalog, as Japan is the only region with his very own catalog that no other country can see (they don't even bother with our EU/USA/Other catalogs either, JP stands on his own) ;) :::::I also tried many countries like China/Hong-Kong/Korea or Saudi Arabia/Congo/South Africa to see if they have distinct catalogs, but it looks like every country in the world share the same "Full Line EU/USA/NA catalogs" (except Japan, that is). --KainTGC (talk) 23:50, May 5, 2016 (UTC) ::::::Yes, it does appear that there are only four basic flavors of catalogs (not counting the occasional GIO catalog). I think we've done a good job of capturing the catalogs at least for the past several years. By the way, I noticed today that the 2016 USA catalog is available on the Ibanez site. Haven't yet found the 2016 catalogs for Japan or NA, though. \m/ DeeJayKTalk! 15:56, May 6, 2016 (UTC) :::::::Same conclusion, 4 "major" catalogs for JP/USA/NA/EU. Talking about this, it makes me wonder how some people managed to add "Available: Area1/Area3/Area4" in the speclist, it don't have a clue where to get such informations. On a side-note, I think the idea of using "Area 123456" is way too complicated, I would rather stick with the good old "JP/USA/NA/EU/Worldwide" if it were me. --KainTGC (talk) 17:02, May 6, 2016 (UTC) I agree completely that the whole numbered areas thing is too complicated. I don't really see what value it adds. From what I can tell it comes from Ibanez' internal market structure (see Ibanez areas of the world) — according to this there should be six catalogs. That said, I really don't know who the whole "Area 1" thing really benefits and it is confusing. For the pages I've added, I've just used the market shorthand you've described (Japan, USA, EU (or just Europe), etc.) However, I've generally left it alone for pages that already note the area numbers. Unless someone can explain how this adds value, I would suggest we consider making it a policy (and documenting it as such) to discontinue it's use altogether including removing it from existing pages. \m/ DeeJayKTalk! 17:19, May 6, 2016 (UTC) :oooh I didn't know the "outdent" trick (I keep it for later)! :I'm glad we share the same idea about areas. Well, of course it has some importance, North America area also implies Oceania/Australia (WTF is Japan thinking of when they look at the world map)? But yes the 4 main areas are generally more than enough to see how a specific model spread around the world. Not only this, but a model can be released in the USA the first year, then it's available worldwide the years after. General idea: "the more simple, the better", I'll stick to this too. --KainTGC (talk) 23:43, May 6, 2016 (UTC)